Election Law @ Moritz has released this overview of election administration issues in five midwestern states: Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. It includes discussion of voting technology, absentee ballots, provisional ballots, voter ID, and polling place operations. … Continue reading
Dan Tokaji
The L.A. Times has this story, on the ongoing dispute regarding Florida’s 13th Congressional District, where Republican Vern Buchanan leads Democrat Christine Jennings by 369 votes. The story reports that: “Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi’s pledge to bring bipartisan peace to that … Continue reading
A state judge has ordered that 23,000 ballots be hand-recounted in the race for the Pennsylvania House’s 156th District, according to this AP report. Democrat Barbara McIlvaine Smith leads Republican Shannon Royer by 23 votes, which would give Democrats a … Continue reading
The AP has this report. … Continue reading
Tony Quinn has this op-ed in the L.A. Times on the prospects for redistricting reform in California … and what Gov. Schwarzenegger should do. … Continue reading
The Salt Lake Tribune reports here that Utah’s switch from punch cards to Diebold electronic voting technology doubled the costs of this year’s elections. … Continue reading
The Morris News Bee has this story on a Township Committee election, in which the Democratic candidate Jeff Grayzel trails the Republican candidate Joseph Calvanelli Jr. by a single vote (4,217-4,216) after a recount. Grayzel is challenging the result in … Continue reading
The Columbus Dispatch has this report, finding that 15.3% of voters used absentee ballots. Ohio instituted no-fault absentee voting for the first time in 2006. The Dispatch also finds that the percentage of provisional ballots increased slightly. See this table … Continue reading
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights has scheduled a hearing on Renewing the Temporary Provisions of the Voting Rights Act: Legislative Options After LULAC v. Perry, to take place this Thursday at 2 … Continue reading
W. Hardy Callcott has filed this petition with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), asking that it amend or repeal MSRB Rule G-37’s $250 contribution limit on the ground that it’s unconstitutional under Randall v. Sorrell. … Continue reading
U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks ruled yesterday that Rep. Tom DeLay’s name must remain on the ballot in Texas’ 22nd District, despite the fact that he claims to have moved to Virginia. The AP has this story and NY … Continue reading
Judge Melvin K. Westmoreland of Fulton County Superior Court yesterday issued a temporary restraining order against Georgia’s revised photo identification requirement, passed earlier this year. The NY Times has this report and the AP this one. The order comes less … Continue reading
A floor debate on Voting Rights Act renewal is slated for next week, according to CQ Weekly (subscription required), which reports that the bill is “penciled in for floor debate late in the week.” It also reports the “Rules Committee … Continue reading
Mark Posner has published this article, entitled “The Real Story Behind the Justice Department’s Implementation of Section 5 of the VRA: Vigorous Enforcement, as Intended by Congress,” in the inaugural issue of the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public … Continue reading
The AP has this report on a lawsut by the ACLU, third-party candidates, and lobbyists challenging Connecticut’s campaign finance law passed late last year and amended in June. The complaint may be found here and plaintiffs’ press release here. … Continue reading
Reuters reports here that: “Felipe Calderon, a ruling party conservative, won a razor-thin victory on Thursday in Mexico’s presidential election but his leftist rival vowed to contest the result in the courts and on the streets.” Further discussion of the … Continue reading
The Salt Lake Tribune offers this report on the difficulty of conducting recounts on Utah’s voting machines, which generate a contemporaneous paper record (or “voter verified paper audit trail”) of the electronic vote. The problem, according to the article, is … Continue reading
The Austin American-Statesman has this report on a lawsuit challenging the electronic voting system used in Travis County, Texas. According to the report of a hearing on Thursday, “visiting Judge Rose Spector, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, voiced skepticism … Continue reading
Tova Wang of The Century Foundation has written this issue brief on “Improving Voter Participation.” Among its recommendations are that: -Voters should be allowed to register up until and on Election Day. -Election Day should be a national holiday. -As … Continue reading
The complaint in Project Vote v. Blackwell, described in this post yesterday, may be found here. It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Plaintiffs include Project Vote, the American Association of People with … Continue reading
The American Spectator has this comment from Quin Hillyer, arguing that “Congress ought to move slowly” in renewing the VRA and that Section 5 should be altered significantly. … Continue reading
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has this report on a new lawsuit challenging voter-registration rules promulgated by the office of Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Background on the rules may be found here on the Election Law @ Moritz site. … Continue reading
The AP has this report, on a radio campaign linking illegal immigration and voter identification requirements. The ad, from a group called North Carolina Conservatives United, reportedly states: “Now we need to pass a law that prevents illegal immigrants from … Continue reading
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has this report on the debate between Cuyahoga County election officials and Diebold over who’s responsible for the problems that occurred in the implementation of new voting equipment during the May primary. … Continue reading
The Arizona Daily Star has this report on the division of opinion among that state’s top three elected officials over renewal of the preclearance requirement of the VRA. Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano and Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer both … Continue reading
Today’s San Jose Mercury-News has this op-ed from Angelo Ancheta of the Santa Clara University School of Law, and the Albany Times Union this one from Debo Adegbile of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, both supporting renewal. … Continue reading
Early Ofari Hutchinson offers this perspective on the renewal debate. … Continue reading
Civil rights groups filed a motion for a preliminary injunction yesterday in Common Cause/Georgia v. Billups, seeking to stop a law passed by the Georgia legislature earlier this year requiring voters to show photo identification in order to have their … Continue reading
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights has this report on “Voting Rights in Texas, 1982-2006.” According to the press release, the report was “released in the wake of the derailment by a small group of House Republicans, led by Lynn … Continue reading
As noted in this post the House last week rejected the Stearns Amendment, which would have prevented federal funding for language assistance under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. The Washington Post has this breakdown of the vote, showing … Continue reading
The United States isn’t the only country with a controversy over voting technology. See this report from RTE News, reporting that: An independent commission has told the Dail that electronic voting machines which cost 52 million [euros] can be used … Continue reading
The Palm Beach Post has this story reporting that: “In sharp contrast to the 2000 elections, when thousands of eligible voters were mistakenly purged from the rolls because of an error-riddled felon voter list, elections supervisors say the state is … Continue reading
John Fortier has this analysis of LULAC v. Perry and its impact, on the American Enterprise Institute site. … Continue reading
The Washington Post has this report, which says that there are perhaps four states where Democrats might reap gains from a mid-decade redistricting (Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico and Louisiana) but that they’re not likely to try “because of factors … Continue reading
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is now requesting a vote-by-vote recount of ballots in Mexico’s election, in which the initial count showed he lost to Felipe Calderon by just over 1%. The NY Times has this report and the AP this … Continue reading
The Help America Vote Act requires that every state have in place a statewide registration database for this year’s elections. The Madison Capital Times reports here that Wisconsin is having trouble making its work: “The state’s new voter registration system … Continue reading
So says this editorial in the Corvallis Gazette Times, in response to an analysis of voting in Oregon’s may primary. That analysis, described at greater length in this AP report, showed that over two-thirds of those voting were over 57, … Continue reading
Felipe Calderon holds a slim lead over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in tallies released yesterday (36.38% to 35.34%), the Washington Post reports, but litigation is brewing: “Teams of lawyers are girding for a massive challenge of the results, threatening a … Continue reading
That according to Todd Gillman of the Dallas Morning News, who writes: “With the Supreme Court giving its OK to mid-decade redistricting, momentum may be growing a bit for a ban on redrawing House lines more than once after each … Continue reading
Arizona opthamologist and activist Mark Osterloh proposes to increase voter participation, by having the state provide $1 million prize to a randomly selected voter in every general election. According to this AP report: “Osterloh’s initiative, the first initiative to be … Continue reading
FairVote’s blog offers a “clear explanation” of the decision here. … Continue reading
Sadly for election officials in Yuba County, California, they’re going to have to count them, according to this report in the Appeal-Democrat. A recount has been requested in a supervisorial race where the incumbent defeated the challenger by a 676-639 … Continue reading
The Wall Street Journal offers this report (subscription required) on opposition by some Republicans to legislation that would restrict 527s. According to the WSJ: “In the 2006 campaign so far, it is right-leaning 527s that are most active. The Club … Continue reading
The NY Times has this report and Reuters this one on Sen. Joe Lieberman’s plan to run as an independent, in the event he’s defeated in the August 8 Democratic primary by liberal challenger Ned Lamont. … Continue reading
Bob Bauer offers this insightful and favorable review of Spencer Overton’s new book Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression . … Continue reading
The LA Times has this report. … Continue reading
Ned Foley defends Justice Kennedy’s opinion for the Court on the Section 2 issue in this weekly comment on the Election Law @ Moritz site. This follows his comment last week defending Justice Kennedy’s opinion on the constitutional issue. … Continue reading
The New York Times has this report on local government entities’ increasing use of private lobbying firms to secure federal funding. … Continue reading
The Toledo Blade has this editorial on four recent no-contest pleas for ethics violations, related to rare coin dealer Tom Noe’s funnelling of money to the Bush re-election campaign. The Blade, which has provided excellent coverage of the so-called “Noe … Continue reading
The Washington Post offers this editorial on the Vermont decision, which begins: At first glance, the Supreme Court’s decision last week striking down Vermont’s campaign finance laws may seem like a defeat for proponents of reasonable regulation of election money. … Continue reading